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Lambeth Larder don’t store any food – but they can direct you to emergency food and other services. They published ‘The Directory’ a free guide to connecting people (e.g. advice centres, parents groups), food (food banks, low cost shopping) and support (money advice and more).

How it began

Virginia Nimarkoh of Lambeth Larder explains: “The original idea grew out of work done as part a 2 year pilot project that Lambeth Council funded. The aim was to find out how the community supports people in financial need and identify any gaps in provision.”

Connected community

“There’s so much important community-based work going on, from well-known services like offering food in a crisis to less known ones like a baby clothes library. Local groups may not know that what’s going on round the corner or in the next church hall that could connect with what they do. This helps them know they’re not working in isolation”.

Mapmakers

“When the original funding ended, the online map that we’d produced seemed too valuable a resource to just let go. We get about 20,000 unique visits to Lambeth Larder website every year. Lambeth Larder now works in partnership with Brixton Advice Centre. We received Big Lottery Awards for All funding to publish 5,000 paper copies of the Directory, which we’ve distributed to local groups. We could have given away double what we printed. We want to expand the networks that we distribute through to include GP surgeries, pharmacies and early years groups.

Lambeth Larder is not just about where to find food banks. We’ve sections on shopping well, money saving ideas, digital inclusion. In the next edition, we’d like the Directory to include a section on mental health. Last year, our resources reached over 35,000 people.”

For everyone

“Lambeth Larder is useful if you’re having financial difficulties. But anyone can use it to connect with local groups, if they and want to donate their time or money. We hope groups and services will use it to join up, share what they do and work together. We plan to crowdfund for a reprint. Readers can support us by following us on social media (Facebook and Twitter) to help us build our crowd!”